1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of copier machines and, more particularly, to a system for aiding a user of a copy machine to preview the arrangement of a document within a paper copying area, as well as a method of utilizing such a document previewing system.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In copying a piece of paper or other type of document, it is often desirable to limit the area of the document which is to be copied. In other words, it is often desirable to only copy a portion of a document or to simultaneously copy only portions of multiple documents. Unfortunately, properly positioning one or more documents within a copy zone of the machine can be extremely difficult. Typically, the document(s) will have to be initially copied to determine if any unwanted portions thereof are improperly positioned. Numerous iterations of this process may be required in order to simply obtain the proper document arrangement for copying. Obviously, this procedure wastes not only copy paper, but toner and operator time.
In an effort to address this problem in the art, it has been proposed to modify the construction of a copier machine to incorporate a display device which would enable any documents placed in the copy area to be viewed prior to actually performing the copying operation. An example of such a proposed prior art solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,175. In general, the type of display arrangement presented in this patent is similar to that utilized in connection with the previewing of microfilm prior to copying. Although this proposed arrangement does enable a copy machine operator to preview the document(s) prior to any copies being made, the overall display system considerably changes the construction of a standard copier machine and therefore represents a significant increase in the overall manufacturing costs of machines incorporating this technology. For at least this reason, this document preview system is not practical for incorporation in at least the majority of copier machines, particularly smaller copier machines used by numerous businesses.
Based on the above, there exists a need in the art for a system used in previewing documents to be copied, wherein the system is inexpensive and can be readily incorporated into existing copy machine designs, as well as being extremely effective and easy to operate.